I am going to the occult conference in Glastonbury next year. I was wondering if anyone else from in here is going? There are early bird tickets for sale right now:
2 Likes
Looks fun. What’s it about though just market stalls and a few lectures?
2 Likes
There will be workshops as well, theory and practice. I have not been there before, so I am new to this conference as well. Here is the direct link where more information will occur:
3 Likes
Leave it to the UK to hold occult events. I dont think you can find them in the states
2 Likes
UK is special in that sense, yes. I was at my first conference in UK in 2016. However there is this in US coming up (too far away from me):
1 Like
See. Now that is relatively close to me with myself being in california. Oregon is a 3 hour drive
1 Like
If you decide to go I would seriously recommend experiencing Alkistis Dimech. I find her work to be deeply important.
A fan of Scarlet Imprint?
1 Like
You can,but you really have to go out of your way to find one. Festivals are marketed much better, unfortunately.
1 Like
Might pop along as it’s around my birthday!
Edit - delete a word.
I think Scarlet Imprint has published some great books. I have not read them all. I do not consider myself a fan of anything or anyone. I do not like the term.
that’s "fan"tastic!
although I disagree with this part of her definition of witchcraft; “Witchcraft is unbridled female sexuality. It is the woman who initiates.” (If the land is being poisoned, Witchcraft must respond… | ?!)
I think that’s bullshit feminist historical revisionism that has no basis in the witchcraft trial records where it was always the Devil or the “man in black” who initiates.
How can you tell if it is Peter Grey or Alkistis Dimech who responds there? I remember reading that interview and wondering about that. They do say this: “Our position is quite distinct” which means, in my eyes at least, that they are not trying to say something historically correct but what they are working/theorising/planning from. My guess is, and it is only a guess, that their position is linked to, among other things, things described in “Caliban and the witch” by Silvia Federici in the sense that it is a protest againt anything hierarchical installed by patriarchy. They turn a process 180 degrees so to speak. Not to correct an error but to make a necessary reversal of power dynamics. So, with all respect, I think you read things into their statement, that is not there.
1 Like
I have another disagreement with what they say in that interview which is about the necessity of drugs in witchcraft. I think that is highly individual.
1 Like
From my reading of the interview it seemed like a joint “statement of intent”.
My issue with them is that they critique Wicca yet employ the same feminist tactic of historical revisionism of the trial records for contemporary political purposes. This constitutes a misreading of history in the same vein as the work of Margaret Murray and Charles Leland.
Their project of creating a futurally based vision of witchcraft that deals with current and future ecological concerns is, indeed, laudable. However, if it is not based upon an accurate reading of history their project will have as much foundational stability as, to use an analogy from the gospels, a “house built on sand”.
1 Like
Okay. I simply do not understand what you mean by an accurate reading of history when it comes to witchcraft. Witchcraft is very much linked to poetry in my perception, and poetry is a living, breathing, endlessly creating task, a building of relationships. To talk about an accurate reading of history in that connection reminds me of having a scientifical approach towards something that will always be untamable. It is like asking: what is the structure of a wild lion? Is there an answer, that makes sense to that?
This is a huge conversation to open up, I think, but I am willing to go with it and contribute with everything I can (and cannot and admit that too).
1 Like
Perhaps the historiography that I am employing is less dependent on poetic readings but rather on what can be understood of the past through the documents produced from within the cultural contexts of the time periods under examination; documents such as witness statements, trial records, autobiographical records, records of the folklore, customs and beliefs of the period, etc. A wide reading of as many available documents of the period as possible lends itself to deeper levels of understanding of the phenomena in question; in this case witchcraft. The proportionality of wide reading to depth of understanding is what I mean by “accuracy”. Note that I am not arguing for the existence of knowable historical “facts”; rather I am simply agreeing with Derrida when he says that “some readings are better than others”. In this case; readings of historical documents. And as such I would say that Alkistis’ reading of the historical texts falls into the same tradition of Leland and Murray and thus demonstrates a continuity with the same Wicca that she and her partner try to distance themselves from.
Also note that the above is not meant in any way to disparage the work of Scarlet Imprint; I have bought and read a few of their works; Peter Mark Adam’s “The Game of Saturn” and the accompanying Sola Busca Tarrochi are excellent; the former is the most well researched occult text that I have ever had the pleasure to read and is streets ahead of BALG’s pop occultism in terms of production quality and depth / breadth of research (for a fraction of the price!)
Before I reply with anything else I would like to ask you what makes you so certain that the response is Alkistis Dimech’s and not Peter Grey’s?